What is Williams Fractal?
A Williams Fractal marks a bar whose high is strictly higher than the highs of the bars on each side of it, or whose low is strictly lower than the lows either side. It picks out local swing highs and swing lows, the smallest units of market structure.
A fractal is confirmed late by definition. It needs the bars after the turn to exist, so it cannot mark a top or bottom as it happens, and it says nothing about whether the turn will lead anywhere.
How to use Williams Fractal
- Up arrows. An up arrow above a bar marks a local swing high. Many traders treat the most recent ones as resistance or as levels whose break matters.
- Down arrows. A down arrow below a bar marks a local swing low, read the same way as support.
- The sequence. Rising swing lows and swing highs describe an uptrend; falling ones a downtrend. Fractals make that sequence easy to see.
- Periods. More bars on each side means fewer, more significant marks, each confirmed later.
Fractals describe structure after the fact. They are not entry signals on their own.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Periods | 2 | How many bars on each side the marked bar must beat. 2 compares against two bars before and two after, a five-bar pattern. Higher finds fewer, larger swings and confirms them later. Minimum 1. |
Change the number of bars on each side in the indicator settings.
Calculation
With Periods n, each bar the indicator looks back n bars and tests the bar there:
up fractal: high[n] > every high in the n newer bars
and high[n] > every high in the n older bars
down fractal: low[n] < every low in the n newer bars
and low[n] < every low in the n older barsWith the default of 2, the test needs two bars after the candidate, so the arrow appears two bars after the bar it marks and is drawn on that earlier bar, where the turn actually was.
Comparisons are strict, so a tie disqualifies. Two bars sharing the highest high in the window produce no up fractal at all rather than two. A bar can be both an up and a down fractal, and then gets both arrows. Near the start of the loaded history there are not enough older bars to test, so no fractals are marked there.
Limitations
- It is always late. Each arrow appears n bars after the turn it marks. By the time it shows, price has already moved away from the level.
- Many small swings. At the default setting fractals are frequent, and most of them mark noise rather than meaningful turns.
- Equal highs or lows hide a turn. Because ties disqualify, a double top at exactly the same price shows no up fractal.
- The live bar can change the result. A fractal that depends on the current candle can appear and disappear until that candle closes.
- It is not a strategy. It carries no trend filter, sizing or exit on its own.
Frequently asked questions
A Williams Fractal is a bar whose high is strictly the highest, or whose low is strictly the lowest, of a small group of bars around it. With the default setting the group is two bars on each side, so a fractal is a five-bar pattern with the extreme in the middle.
Up arrows mark swing highs and down arrows mark swing lows. Traders use the most recent ones as reference levels, watching for price to break above the last up fractal or below the last down fractal, and use the sequence of higher or lower swings to judge trend structure.
Yes. The indicator declares one input: Periods, default 2 with a minimum of 1. It sets how many bars on each side the marked bar must beat. Open the indicator's settings on the chart to change it.
It is confirmed late rather than redrawn. A fractal cannot exist until n bars after the turn have printed, so each arrow appears n bars after the bar it marks, two bars with the default setting, and is placed back on that earlier bar. While the newest of those bars is still live, an arrow can appear and then disappear before the candle closes. Once the bars have closed, the mark is fixed. Read on history, the arrows look as if they were there at the turn; in real time they were not.
Either another bar within the window has an equal high, which disqualifies both because the comparison is strict, or a bar within n bars on either side made a higher high. A larger Periods setting widens that window.
Use the Add to chart button at the top of this page. It opens BTC/USDT on Binance in the Altrady Charts terminal with the built-in Williams Fractal already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Williams Fractal from the Levels group.